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Stray Kitten

The room was boiling, but Samantha sat on the sofa with her legs drawn to her body, shivering. Only one floor above our heads the officers were packing Samantha’s mother, Claudia, in a thick black bag.

I tried to calm her down, but the words just spilled out of Samantha’s mouth. “I found her on the street; back then she was just this cute, gray kitten with big eyes and an innocent meow. I saw her sitting on the floor behind a bin and the moment I saw her I wanted to have her. I just didn’t want to leave her outside.”

“But my mom”, Samantha looked with sad eyes towards the stairs. “I knew she didn’t like cats. She wouldn’t allow it. And so I hid her under my bed. I called her Risa.”

“I told my friends about Risa, and also dad. Dad always understood me and I knew he wouldn’t mind the cat. But he is in Iraq and he still has another six months before he comes back. He always tells me about the stuff happening there, the bombs and how he is scared but doesn’t dare to tell the others in his unit about it because he thinks they would laugh.”

“Dad was really understanding. He too thought that Risa was cute. But he told me not to tell mom. ‘Claudia won’t understand’, he said. And ‘Claudia might give her to the shelter.’” Samantha cried. “It’s all my fault.”

“I fed her every day and I played with her. And when my friends came over they too played with Risa. But one of my friends, when he saw Risa he said that she didn’t look like a normal cat, that her head and her eyes were too large. But I liked her like that; I thought she looked even cuter with that.”

“When mom commented that all the meat was disappearing from the fridge I didn’t say anything. I took a bit for Risa, but not much. I don’t know how mom noticed it. I just said that she must be confused and mom accepted that.” Samantha wiped her face with her sleeve.

“But then Risa began to grow. I’m not sure how to explain it; she just got bigger every day. At first I thought it was normal, but after a month she was already larger than most cats. And she still seemed to keep growing. And then her hair too began to fall. I found it everywhere in my room, in small tufts, as if Risa had ripped it out.”

“I think after a week she was nearly pale. And she kept getting fatter. I couldn’t even let her sleep on my pillow anymore because there just wasn’t any space for me. And Risa’s claws were getting longer; she kept scratching me at night. But the weirdest thing was that her eyes seemed to be getting bigger, even bigger than before. They took up more and more of her face. Dad said she was beginning to look like a fly, you know, with these big eyes that flies have. And he told me to give Risa away. ‘Claudia will kill you when she finds Risa. For a cute cat you might still convince her, but that “thing – no chance!’”

“I was really angry at dad that he called Risa a ‘thing’. And from that day I didn’t tell him about Risa anymore, and I think Risa realized that too. When I was on Skype with him Risa always went to the other side of the room. It was as if she was sulking too.”

“But the thing is, Risa got really too big. And then, when she started to jump around and break things I got really angry at her and scolded her. But it was as if I had made her angry, the moment I turned away she ripped some of the pictures from my wall and clawed at them.”

“The next day, when mom was gone, I went to throw Risa out. But it was as if she knew, she refused to go out of the room. My room is really small, but it took me a long time to catch her. She was so big and so fast, and when I finally had her I could barely lift her up. At that point she was nearly the size of a German shepherd, and her eyes were nearly as big as my hands. I mean, she was really ugly, but still I felt guilty when I threw her out.”

“The thing is”, Samantha sounded desperate. “The next day she was back. I’m sure I closed my window and my mom wouldn’t have let her in. But when I came back in my room Risa was lying on my bed, looking at me with this weird look in her eyes. And she had gotten fatter. Within just a day she had grown a lot. And her eyes had this weird shining black. Her eyes really looked like those of a fly.”

“I tried to push Risa out again, but she just didn’t budge. And I didn’t want to tell mom about it. So I just left the window open during the day, and I hoped she would just leave. But when I came home she was still there. And she had grown even more; when she was standing she could rest her head on my desk. And she had gotten really fat, as if she had done nothing all day but eat.”

“And today I wanted to throw her out again. I tried to bait her with a piece of meat, and I tried to push her outside, but Risa started hissing at me and I just couldn’t move her out of the room.”

Tears were running down Samantha’s face and she pulled her legs even closer to her body. “So when mom came home I thought I would tell her and she would maybe be angry, but at least she would help me get Risa out. Mom always knew what to do.”

“When I told mom she shouted at me for lying like that to her, but she said she would help me. And we went up together, I went first, and she walked behind me. When I opened the door Risa sat on the bed, but I knew right away that something was wrong. She was even bigger, but she also looked angry, she was baring her teeth and she made this long but quiet hissing sound. I stepped aside to let mom in – but she screamed when she saw Risa, and in the same moment Risa jumped towards her and started this weird growling sound.”

“Mom started hitting towards her, and then Risa got on her hind legs. I shouted at her to get down, but Risa clawed at mom, and then she jumped on her and mom fought back, but she fell and then Risa bit her everywhere. I tried to hit Risa with an umbrella, but she just kept biting mom more and more and then I ran down to call the police and when I came up Risa was gone and mom was just lying there on the floor, with all the blood and the holes in her arms and her neck and –“